It took me another 5.5 hours before reaching Motherwell, changing to a different train at York. My B&B was only a short walk from Motherwell Station, where I stayed till 4th Se
pt before travelling down to Durham, England where I stayed with my former PhD supervisor for two days before travelling together down to London for the conference.
I had the time to meet friends in Glasgow and it was a good time of friendship renewal, catching up and such like. On 1st Sept I visited Lim's Supermarket, a Malaysian Chinese who operates a small provision shop in Glasgow city centre. We chatted for a long time. After all, he met Nat and myself and we developed very deep friendship with him and his wife.
That evening two other friends, Helen and her husband Kao Hua who comes from Malaysia met me for dinner at Banana Leaf, just next to the Lim's. Helen has been a most caring and gentle friend and sister-in-Christ who keeps in touch with me via the Facebook. She also gave me updates of all the happenings in church. It was a most lovely time to listen to the two sons' stories: one is doing his PhD in law at Aberdeen, while the other one is doing campus outreach. I'm touched by her husband's simple and quiet gesture of friendship. They all had met Nat while were in Glasgow. And Helen has been so quietly understanding and unassuming in every message to me. They thought of Banana Leaf as it's a Chinese restaurant operated by Malaysian Chinese and that I'd miss home food. I'm grateful to God for their thoughtfulness.
On 2nd Sept, I visited the church, which has now come under the United Free Church of Scotland, where I was invited to share a little what I was doing. Interesting though, it was almost to the hour since Nat and I first came to Glasgow on 2nd Sept 1997! 15 years have passed, and almost everything remains unchanged...
The day before, after visiting the Lim's, I went to the Mitchell Library (Europe's largest public reference library), about 100 metres from which is where Nat and I stayed before. It brought back so many sweet but sorrowful memories as well... next was the Kelvingrove Park, where Nat and I used to walk almost everyday of our almost 3-year stay there. As I stepped into the park, I couldn't control and the lump in my throat was so overwhelmingly huge... I went to the toilet of a little cafe (a new addition) in the park and started throwing up... this was the phenomenon for almost 5 years after Nat's death (the doctor later diagnosed to be PTSD) and it came back the entire period when I was in Glasgow... I walked past the university but couldn't bring myself to entering it and so bypassed it...for as I was near it suddenly Nat's images appeared right where I took pictures of her...
Back to 2nd Sept, I had a refreshing and meaningful time with Cassie & Ken and Elizabeth Thomson over lunch. Thereafter Cassie & Ken took me to their home where we met their second daughter who no longer remembered me. After a while chatting, Robert came to bring me to his place where we chatted and prayed before he & Margarate sent me back to the B&B.
3rd Sept, I returned to Glasgow city centre where I'd arranged to meet a good friend David Miller who on the previous day invited me to share in church. I had sometime with the Lim's again and met his wife before buying two underblankets (1 for myself and another for a couple back in HK). Towards the evening I went over to International Christian College where David is now one of the Vice-principals. We chatted for a while and then headed to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. We then headed for his place where I got to meet Jeanette, Jamie and Katie, all of whom have grown so much. But Paul wasn't in and so I missed him. It was so lovely to see them all...simply wonderful...and I still remember Katie who in 2006 bought me a recorder! I also got to look at some of Jeanette's most amazing paintings and drawings! She has inspired and encouraged me to draw and get into water-colour drawing, as I shared a few of my amateurist pictures. I left with a little sadness as I don't know when we'll meet again...
The trip to Durham was good and John Barclay had sent his wife to pick me up at the station, as he was having meetings throughout the day. Diana took me home and, after leaving my things, we headed for Durham Cathedral where I realised back in 2006 I must have been so grieved that somehow the things I saw didn't register at all. But it was a good time looking at some of the displayed paintings and drawings which apparently were new additions. Throughout my stay with them, John and Diana went so many extra miles in making me feel at home and comfortable: a clean and tidy room, lovely meals and chats, and all the privacy for which I'm deeply grateful. The following day, John arranged for a lunch with two Singaporean friends doing their PhDs at Durham, one of whom was my previous student. We had the entire afternoon of coffee and catching up after lunch. I was really grateful to John for making the arrangements.
The conference was a big disappointment, which I shall talk about in another post.
During my trip up in Glasgow, I received an email from my former senior minister in Singapore Rev Derek Kingston who's now retired and lives in England with his wife Lai Leng. They offered to have me over to spend the night. The travel to their home was simple - a 35-40 minutes of train ride from Liverpool Street Station in London to Rayleigh where Rev Kingston picked me up. As usual, Lai Leng prepared a lovely meal for me! Their two daughters have grown up now and Jane is now mother of a lovely boy while Deborah is now working in an IT related job.
The Kingston's took me to a buffet lunch the following day, before sending me all the way to Heathrow, a journey of nearly 2 hours! And they were so considerate as not to make me feel bad that they actually planned a trip to their daugter's home for a few days.
Suddenly, I feel I have recovered my humanity. As I reflect upon my life here in Hong Kong the last four years, I realised I've been protecting and putting up a guard around myself psychologically, as I do not want to be hurt, or drawn into some of the local politics of the seminary, or become so narcissistic.
I'm grateful for the friends I have met, who are so full of gentleness and grace, so unassuming and humane...
I had the time to meet friends in Glasgow and it was a good time of friendship renewal, catching up and such like. On 1st Sept I visited Lim's Supermarket, a Malaysian Chinese who operates a small provision shop in Glasgow city centre. We chatted for a long time. After all, he met Nat and myself and we developed very deep friendship with him and his wife.
That evening two other friends, Helen and her husband Kao Hua who comes from Malaysia met me for dinner at Banana Leaf, just next to the Lim's. Helen has been a most caring and gentle friend and sister-in-Christ who keeps in touch with me via the Facebook. She also gave me updates of all the happenings in church. It was a most lovely time to listen to the two sons' stories: one is doing his PhD in law at Aberdeen, while the other one is doing campus outreach. I'm touched by her husband's simple and quiet gesture of friendship. They all had met Nat while were in Glasgow. And Helen has been so quietly understanding and unassuming in every message to me. They thought of Banana Leaf as it's a Chinese restaurant operated by Malaysian Chinese and that I'd miss home food. I'm grateful to God for their thoughtfulness.
On 2nd Sept, I visited the church, which has now come under the United Free Church of Scotland, where I was invited to share a little what I was doing. Interesting though, it was almost to the hour since Nat and I first came to Glasgow on 2nd Sept 1997! 15 years have passed, and almost everything remains unchanged...
The day before, after visiting the Lim's, I went to the Mitchell Library (Europe's largest public reference library), about 100 metres from which is where Nat and I stayed before. It brought back so many sweet but sorrowful memories as well... next was the Kelvingrove Park, where Nat and I used to walk almost everyday of our almost 3-year stay there. As I stepped into the park, I couldn't control and the lump in my throat was so overwhelmingly huge... I went to the toilet of a little cafe (a new addition) in the park and started throwing up... this was the phenomenon for almost 5 years after Nat's death (the doctor later diagnosed to be PTSD) and it came back the entire period when I was in Glasgow... I walked past the university but couldn't bring myself to entering it and so bypassed it...for as I was near it suddenly Nat's images appeared right where I took pictures of her...
Back to 2nd Sept, I had a refreshing and meaningful time with Cassie & Ken and Elizabeth Thomson over lunch. Thereafter Cassie & Ken took me to their home where we met their second daughter who no longer remembered me. After a while chatting, Robert came to bring me to his place where we chatted and prayed before he & Margarate sent me back to the B&B.
3rd Sept, I returned to Glasgow city centre where I'd arranged to meet a good friend David Miller who on the previous day invited me to share in church. I had sometime with the Lim's again and met his wife before buying two underblankets (1 for myself and another for a couple back in HK). Towards the evening I went over to International Christian College where David is now one of the Vice-principals. We chatted for a while and then headed to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. We then headed for his place where I got to meet Jeanette, Jamie and Katie, all of whom have grown so much. But Paul wasn't in and so I missed him. It was so lovely to see them all...simply wonderful...and I still remember Katie who in 2006 bought me a recorder! I also got to look at some of Jeanette's most amazing paintings and drawings! She has inspired and encouraged me to draw and get into water-colour drawing, as I shared a few of my amateurist pictures. I left with a little sadness as I don't know when we'll meet again...
The trip to Durham was good and John Barclay had sent his wife to pick me up at the station, as he was having meetings throughout the day. Diana took me home and, after leaving my things, we headed for Durham Cathedral where I realised back in 2006 I must have been so grieved that somehow the things I saw didn't register at all. But it was a good time looking at some of the displayed paintings and drawings which apparently were new additions. Throughout my stay with them, John and Diana went so many extra miles in making me feel at home and comfortable: a clean and tidy room, lovely meals and chats, and all the privacy for which I'm deeply grateful. The following day, John arranged for a lunch with two Singaporean friends doing their PhDs at Durham, one of whom was my previous student. We had the entire afternoon of coffee and catching up after lunch. I was really grateful to John for making the arrangements.
The conference was a big disappointment, which I shall talk about in another post.
During my trip up in Glasgow, I received an email from my former senior minister in Singapore Rev Derek Kingston who's now retired and lives in England with his wife Lai Leng. They offered to have me over to spend the night. The travel to their home was simple - a 35-40 minutes of train ride from Liverpool Street Station in London to Rayleigh where Rev Kingston picked me up. As usual, Lai Leng prepared a lovely meal for me! Their two daughters have grown up now and Jane is now mother of a lovely boy while Deborah is now working in an IT related job.
The Kingston's took me to a buffet lunch the following day, before sending me all the way to Heathrow, a journey of nearly 2 hours! And they were so considerate as not to make me feel bad that they actually planned a trip to their daugter's home for a few days.
Suddenly, I feel I have recovered my humanity. As I reflect upon my life here in Hong Kong the last four years, I realised I've been protecting and putting up a guard around myself psychologically, as I do not want to be hurt, or drawn into some of the local politics of the seminary, or become so narcissistic.
I'm grateful for the friends I have met, who are so full of gentleness and grace, so unassuming and humane...
